Hi, I’m Stephanie, and I am a recovering workaholic.

For over a decade, I poured everything I had into my professional life. Working at an ad agency as a strategist, I missed nights with friends and weekends with family. I worked until 9pm or later on the regular. I was always the last one at the office - and often one of the first there.

With the long hours and my undying dedication to the job, there wasn’t much room for anything else. And for a long time, I was ok with that. I loved my job, so it didn’t seem like I was making a sacrifice in my personal life. I got lost in it. I was fueled and fulfilled by it, but I wasn’t happy.

It took two different events to wake me up.

While working on a project all about people following their passions, someone asked me what mine was. Ironically, I struggled to come up with an answer that actually reflected something I did outside of the office. It was sobering.

Soon after, I found myself sitting in a daylong corporate training session. The facilitators led us through a visualization that asked us to fast-forward 30 years to our retirement party and envision the impact we had made. Unexpectedly, I burst into tears, feeling a real sense of confusion, sadness and emptiness around the world I had created.

It was then that I realized that work was my life. Everything else came second - my husband, my family, my health, and ultimately, my happiness.

These experiences revealed the burnout that had slowly been building, despite my attempt to fight it off with long vacations abroad. One day, it came and wouldn’t leave, no matter what tricks I threw its way. 

That’s when things started to shift.

Out of necessity more than a genuine desire, I started to explore what life outside work even looked like. It was uncomfortable and unnatural to me. And I had a bit of an identity crisis. I didn’t really know who I was, what mattered to me, or how to fill my time outside of work.

It took some real work (ha) to discover this new side of me. To let go of life at the office and start to create life at home. I spent more time with my husband, with my friends and family, with my community. I joined a neighborhood group and started a garden. I started making my own jam. I did yoga. I slowed down and started to rebuild parts of myself that had long been ignored.

At work, I moved into a managerial role, which largely took me out of the work I loved to do. Hours spent talking about process and procedures started to drain me, and I longed to make a more meaningful contribution, to do something that mattered.

That’s when I decided to get my coaching certification. Initially, I hoped it would make me a better manager and leader, and allow me to lead from a more purposeful perspective. It did all of that, but it also allowed me to refocus on the type of career I wanted to craft going forward. 

I started to spend more time on the people and less on the process. Started coaching colleagues one-on-one, helping them navigate the ambiguity and uncharted territory of corporate life. Started designing workshops inspired by the tools I learned in coach training. Started challenging and championing my team in a way that nurtured and enabled them to grow. 

And I wanted to do this more and more, so I launched Pretty Cool! Coaching & Consulting with the goal of widening my impact and bringing the magic of coaching to more people.