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.
I’m most curious when the things that used to make sense suddenly don’t.
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A decision without an obvious answer. A transition they didn’t ask for. Or one they did. A life that looks perfectly reasonable to everyone else but doesn’t feel right anymore.
THE SPACE BETWEENTwo things
can be true.
Something can be devastating and expansive.
You can be uncertain and still know what matters.
Life can be hard and you can be okay.
You can be responsible and playful.
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. Where you occasionally want to burn the whole thing down and start again.
And where, despite any suspiciously contrary evidence, you might actually know some things.
A DIFFERENT QUESTIONYou probably make sense.
Even the parts you wish
you could change.
As humans, we’re astonishingly good at adapting. We learn what gets rewarded, what keeps the peace, what makes us successful, what earns approval, what gets everyone fed and out the door on time.
And those adaptations work.
Until they don’t.
MAYBE YOU'VE CAUGHT YOURSELF THINKING:Something isn’t working anymore.
I don’t feel like myself.
I keep telling myself things will settle down “after this project.”
I’ve been getting through my life instead of living it.
I don’t have time for the things that light me up.
Is this all there is?
And still, tomorrow morning comes.
HOW A LIFE STOPS FITTINGWait.
How did I get here?
We rarely wake up one morning and consciously choose a life that doesn’t fit us. 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.
Maybe we’ll hit the gym 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.
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 difficult to see when you’re the one living it.
I listen to what you say and I listen for 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.
The same frustration showing up in three completely different places. The rule you’ve been following so long you forgot it was a rule. The thing you keep calling a time-management problem that may not actually be about time. The choice you’re certain you don’t have. The thing you say you want while everything in you seems to be pulling in another direction.
We get curious.
Not: What’s wrong with you?
Instead: What makes sense about this?
What have you adapted to? What have you inherited? What are you protecting? What are you afraid you’ll lose?
What still belongs to you? And what doesn’t anymore?
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 MOVE.Sometimes 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 volunteering for the thing you secretly hate. You water the begonias. You have the conversation.
You let yourself want what you want without immediately building a legal case for why you shouldn’t.
Some things cannot change.
There are losses that cannot be undone. People we cannot save. Bodies that betray us. Doors that close. Responsibilities we willingly choose and still sometimes resent.
Coaching doesn’t make those things okay.
It can help you show up as the person you want to be in the life you actually have.
Grief can take up space without becoming the whole story. You can feel joy before everything is okay. Acceptance doesn’t have to mean giving up on possibility.
WHO I WORK WITHThoughtful, curious people
figuring something out.
I love working with people who are thoughtful, curious, and somewhere in the middle of figuring something out.
Sometimes that looks very 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 it’s harder to separate work from life. You’re caring for an aging parent. Grieving someone or something important. Watching an industry change underneath you. Trying to make room for art without ignoring the practical realities of paying the bills.
I’ve worked with executives, founders, creatives, filmmakers, designers, people in tech, people leaving tech, people starting over, people leveling up, and people who honestly have no idea what comes next.
A lot of my clients have spent years being very good at different parts of themselves. The capable professional. The reliable one. The artist. The caregiver. The person who gets shit done. The person who wants more. The person who is tired.
I’m interested in all of them.
You don’t have to decide which part is the “real” you before we start. Your whole life gets to come into the room.
EXECUTIVES • FOUNDERS • PEOPLE IN TECH • PEOPLE LEAVING TECH • CREATIVES • PEOPLE STARTING OVER • PEOPLE WHO FEEL STUCKWHY ME?I didn’t wake up one day
and decide to become a coach.
I’ve been headed this way for a long time.
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.
I do much of the same thing now, except the thing we’re designing is your life.
I’m also a musician and artist. For years, I thought my analytical and creative sides were in conflict. I moved between those worlds and often felt like a misfit in both.
Eventually I realized I had the premise wrong.
They weren’t opposites.
I was 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.
Serious or playful.
Responsible or free.
Analytical or creative.
Ambitious or content.
Grieving or hopeful.
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.”
HOW WE WORK You don’t have to arrive with a five-point plan.
I don't know.
Something feels off.
I can't keep doing this.
I want something different.
I should be happy.
I'm scared.
This makes no sense.
That’s
enough.
We follow what has energy. We stay with the things that are uncomfortable long enough to find out what they have to tell us.
We connect dots. We challenge assumptions. We try things.
Some work. Some absolutely do not.
Useful information either way.
Eventually, something that looked like five unrelated problems may reveal itself as one pattern.
Something you thought was a personal failing may turn out to have made perfect sense. What you were trying so hard to change may need to be accepted. And something you thought you had to accept may turn out to be a choice. Something you thought you’d lost may still be there.
Then we start making different choices and see what happens.
Until it stops feeling like an experiment.
Until it starts feeling like you.
BEFORE WE BEGINPractical
details.
You don’t need to know exactly what you want to work on before we begin. You just need somewhere honest to start.
?
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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If you skipped straight to the FAQ, fair enough.
I work with executives, founders, creatives, professionals in transition, people navigating grief and caregiving, people building something of their own, and people who don’t have a tidy label for what they’re going through.
You don’t need to have the answers. You do need to be willing to look honestly at what’s happening and see where that takes us.
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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.
IF SOMETHING ISN'T SITTING RIGHTWhat if I realize coaching isn’t the right fit?
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 the terms in our coaching agreement, including work completed outside our sessions, onboarding, preparation, and time I’ve 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 sitting there wondering if you’re supposed to say something.
You don’t need to manufacture certainty before we talk.
Tell me a little about what’s bringing you here. I’ll read your note personally and respond within 1–2 business days.
BASED IN AUSTIN, TEXAS. WORKING WITH CLIENTS ACROSS THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONALLY.