COACHING · AUSTIN, TX · REMOTEI’m Stephanie. I’m a coach.
People usually find me when something in their life is changing, or they suspect it needs to.
Sometimes they’re facing a big decision or a transition they didn’t ask for. Sometimes it's just a vague sense that something’s missing or that their life doesn’t quite feel like it's their own.
They often feel like they have to make an impossible choice between equally important parts of themselves.
Stay in the career OR make time for what makes you feel alive.
Care for the people you love OR put yourself first.
Be the one people can count on OR ask for help.
&
THE SPACE BETWEENThe obvious choice may not be the whole choice.
You can be uncertain and still know what matters.
You can accept what is and still want something different.
Life can contain grief and joy, ambition and rest, obligation and freedom.
I’m not interested in coaching you toward some frictionless version of your life.
That life doesn’t exist.
I’m interested in this one.
The complicated one. The one where people need you and you need things, too. Where you can love something and know it needs to change. Where there are losses you cannot fix.
Where the responsible choice isn’t always the right one. And where some days you want to walk away from it all and start again.
A DIFFERENT QUESTIONYou probably make sense.
Even the parts you might wish you could change.
Your adaptations worked.
Until they didn’t.
We make the best choices we can based on what we know at the time. And we learn what gets rewarded, keeps the peace, makes us successful, earns approval, and gets everyone fed and out the door on time.
HOW A LIFE STOPS FITTINGWe rarely wake up one morning and consciously choose a life that doesn’t fit.
We build it one perfectly reasonable decision at a time.
Your new role has more pressure and visibility, so you skip watering the begonias and get to the office earlier.
That analysis is due tomorrow, so lunch happens at your desk.
The gym can wait until tomorrow.
Your kids have soccer practice tonight, so your time in the studio can wait.
Of course those choices make sense.
That’s the problem.
AND THEN ONE DAY WE LOOK AROUND AND THINK:Wait. How did I get here?
THIS IS WHERE COACHING GETS INTERESTING Not because I know what you should do.
I don’t.
And I’m suspicious of anyone who thinks they do.
My job is to help you see what’s shaping your choices when you’re too close to your own life to see it clearly.
I listen to what you say and what you don’t. I notice when your energy changes. What makes you come alive. What makes you disappear a little. I pay attention when your words, your body, and your energy aren’t telling the same story.
I notice patterns.
Sometimes you can’t see a choice until you understand why you’ve been ruling it out.
We don’t make different choices by trying harder.
We make different choices by seeing more.
THEN SOMETHING STARTS TO MOVESometimes you make the big decision.
Leave the job. Start the thing. End the thing. Move across the country. Tell the truth you’ve been avoiding.
Sometimes nothing remotely that dramatic happens.
You protect Tuesday mornings. You start painting again. You stop saying yes when you mean no. You water the begonias. You have the conversation.
You let yourself want what you want without building a case for why it’s impractical or impossible.
Sometimes things cannot change.
There are losses that cannot be undone. Doors that close. Bodies that betray us. Responsibilities we remain committed to, even when they reshape our lives and relationships in ways we never would have chosen.
COACHING DOESN’T MAKE THOSE THINGS OK.It can help you figure out
who you want to be
while you’re living through them.
What parts of yourself do you hold onto when life gets messy?
What matters when there’s no perfect answer?
THAT’S THE WORK.Not perfect choices. Not certainty. Not becoming a better-managed human.
Just being more fully yourself. And making choices that let your life feel like it’s yours.
WHO I WORK WITHYour whole life is welcome.
I love working with people who are thoughtful, curious, and somewhere in the middle of figuring something out.
Sometimes it looks work-related. You’re stepping into a bigger role. Leaving one that used to define you. Considering a career change. Starting something of your own. Trying to figure out how to lead with more of yourself and less performance.
Sometimes work and life refuse to stay in separate boxes. You’re caring for someone while trying not to disappear. Grieving while still handling Tuesday. Emerging from burnout. Rediscovering a creative self you abandoned somewhere along the way.
The common thread isn’t a job title or a particular kind of transition.
Something isn’t working. You want more, but the choices in front of you feel impossible. Often because every option seems to require giving up something that matters.
You’re willing to look honestly, stay curious, and try something different. You just can’t see the whole pattern from inside your own life.
A lot of my clients have spent years being very good at different parts of themselves.
I’m interested in all of them.
And if you’re wondering, Where do I go from here? That's usually a good place for us to begin.
WHY ME?My path to coaching
is unusual.
In college, I studied psychology and sociology because I was fascinated by people.
Then I spent more than 25 years in human-centered design and strategy,
working with companies including Apple, Dell, Paramount Pictures, and frog.
STEPHANIE WILSON-WAGNER • AUSTIN, TXThe job was ostensibly to design products and experiences.
But the work underneath the work was always human: listen carefully. Notice what others miss. Make sense of a mess of information. Find the pattern. Imagine something that doesn’t exist yet. Figure out how to make it real.
Today, I bring those same ways of seeing to coaching. The work is still human. Now the thing we’re making sense of is your life.
I’m also a musician and artist. For years, I kept my analytical and creative lives carefully separate because they felt incompatible. I moved between those worlds and often felt like a misfit in both.
Until I realized the flaw in my logic.
I am not either/or.
I am both.
That realization changed far more than my work. And maybe that’s part of why I’m so interested in the places where we’ve convinced ourselves we have to choose.
Strong or tender. Responsible or free. Grieving or hopeful.
Sometimes the answer really is one or the other.
Sometimes the most important word is and.
My own life has included career transitions, caregiving, grief, burnout, creative droughts, and a handful of reinventions. Sometimes I burned the house down. Sometimes it got burned down around me.
I don’t believe everything happens for a reason.
I do believe we can get very curious about what happens next.
Thoughtful and mischievous.
Solemn and whimsical.
Precise and abstract.
Grounded and irreverent.
Solitary and connected.
Disciplined and unruly.
and
WHAT CLIENTS TELL ME“You saw me.”
“You named something I couldn’t see.”
“I feel more like myself.”
“I trust myself to handle what’s next.”
“Working with Stephanie gave me valuable clarity and momentum. She is an exceptional listener who is both deeply supportive and willing to challenge me when it matters. Her coaching helped me see longstanding challenges and ingrained patterns in new ways and move forward with greater clarity and alignment with my values. The tools and perspectives I gained have been genuinely useful in real life. It felt like partnering with someone who truly cared about my growth.”
“Working with Stephanie has been transformative. She has helped me reconnect with purpose, clarify how I want to lead and create, and reshape the way I relate to pressure and responsibility in my work as a film producer.
She has a rare ability to create a space that is both deeply supportive and powerfully honest, the kind of space where real insight and lasting change can happen. Through our work, I’ve gained a clearer perspective, a more grounded outlook, and a renewed trust in my own creativity and judgment.”
“I was feeling stuck and a bit aimless in my career when I came to Stephanie for coaching. Throughout our sessions, she helped me gently examine sticking points, tap into my inner wisdom, and to better accept the inevitable uncertainty. By no means did I figure everything out, but I walked away feeling more energized and at peace with my journey ahead than ever.
Stephanie has a keen intuition and a truly nurturing approach, while still acting as the accountability partner I needed. I highly recommend Stephanie to anyone looking for a holistic coaching experience, especially those of us in (or recovering from) the tech industry.”
LET'S START WITH YOU Maybe you’re ready.
Maybe you’re not.
MAYBE YOU JUST KNOW: Not this.
Not like this.
Not anymore.
We can start there.
Based in Austin, Texas. Working remotely with clients across the U.S. and internationally. Austin in-person by inquiry.
Tell me a little bit about what’s bringing you here.
I’ll read your note personally and reply in 1-2 business days.
BEFORE WE BEGINPractical
details.
These are some questions people ask before they reach out.
?
A PLACE TO BEGIN Do I need to know exactly what I want to work on before we begin?
No. In fact, figuring that out may be part of the work.
“I don’t know exactly what’s wrong, but something is off” is plenty to begin with.
That’s enough.
THE QUESTIONS UNDER THE QUESTION A few things worth knowing.
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No. Coaching and therapy serve different purposes.
Therapy may focus on healing emotional wounds, treating mental health conditions, or understanding how the past continues to affect the present. Coaching starts with what’s happening in your life now and what you want to do next.
That doesn’t mean we pretend your past has nothing to do with you. Of course it does. If something you’ve lived through is shaping the choices you’re making today, we’ll get curious about it.
I’m not here to diagnose or treat you. I’m here to help you understand what’s happening, see what you may not be able to see on your own, and decide what you want to do with what we find.
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We begin with a two-hour Foundation Session. It gives us room to understand what’s bringing you here, what you want from the work, and how we want to work together.From there, we typically meet for one hour every other week, with room to adjust when it makes sense.
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Mostly Zoom. It lets me work with people across the U.S. and internationally.
If you’re local to Austin and would like to meet in person, ask me. When it makes sense and schedules cooperate, I’m happy to explore it.
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You can end the engagement at any time.
Sessions that have already taken place are non-refundable. Any remaining balance will be refunded according to our coaching agreement, accounting for onboarding, preparation, work completed outside our sessions, and time reserved for you.
But if something isn’t feeling right, I hope you’ll tell me before you disappear. I’d much rather get curious about it together than have you wondering if you’re supposed to say something.