Hi! I'm Stephanie! I'm passionate about building impactful partnerships, enabling businesses to grow, and making sure the social impact community thrives. With over a decade of consistently generating seven and eight figure annual revenue for companies, I understand what it takes to drive success.

Over the last 15 years working with non-profit, government and for profit businesses, I've developed a unique process for building community and generating revenue through a partnership growth mindset. I've been fortunate to develop programs and partnerships that have touched lives across the globe, from India to the United States and beyond. I've created thousands of ecosystems and opportunities that unite governments, educators, employers, and donors to make tangible change.

I believe that together we can achieve great things and am committed to paving the way for a more inclusive, impactful future.

Stephanie Wilson

There is something about a sunrise from above the clouds.

You take off in the dark. Everything feels heavy and flat.

And then, the plane breaks through.

Light.

Perspective shifts fast at 30,000 feet.

The weather that felt all encompassing on the ground is suddenly just a layer.

I always find myself thinking about how often that is true in life and work too.

What feels overwhelming up close can look very different with a little distance.

Grateful for early flights. Grateful for perspective. 

Grateful for the reminder that the sun was there the whole time.

#HomewardBound #HomeForARest #Thankful

Cross-Sector Growth Strategist | $100M+ in Government & Partner Funding Secured | Nonprofit • Tech • Education • SaaS | Founder – The Uplift Collective

I do not listen to podcasts. My brain tends to wander halfway through and suddenly I am thinking about a completely unrelated idea.

And I don't read as many books as I think I should.

What I do love?
Articles.
Webinars.
Panels.
Micro learning.
Real conversations in rooms with smart people.

I learn best in short bursts. In live exchanges. In moments where I can connect dots immediately to the work in front of me.

So I am curious.

What are your best sources for sharp, practical learning right now?

Think:
• Articles you actually read to the end
• Webinars worth attending
• Newsletters that are not fluff
• LinkedIn voices who make you think
• Short reads that shift your perspective

Drop one recommendation below ⬇️  please!

I want things I can absorb, apply, and think about right away.

Learning does not have to be long to be meaningful.

#ProfessionalDevelopment #Learning #GrowthMindset

I love small group facilitation.

When leaders from different sectors lean in.
When someone shares a real example instead of a polished talking point.
When one insight sparks another.
When you can almost feel ideas building on top of each other in real time.

Small groups have a different rhythm.

They’re more intimate.
More honest.
More generous.

It’s less about presenting and more about listening.
Less about being right and more about learning.

Facilitating those spaces is about holding the structure lightly.
Watching the clock so no one has to.
Making sure every voice has room.
Asking the question that helps the group go one layer deeper.

There’s something powerful about creating a space where people are willing to share what they’re seeing, what they’re struggling with, and what they’re trying.

Not to impress.

To contribute.

That exchange and the cross-pollination of ideas is what I love most.

That’s the work behind the work.

And it never gets old.

#GrowthMindset #KnowledgeSharing

I’ve been pretty heads down this week.

Working through deliverables for clients.

Problem solving in creative ways.

Building out plans for new engagements.

It’s that deep focus work that I really love.
No noise. No rushing between things. Just time to think, map ideas out, and work through challenges properly.

There’s something really freeing about that kind of space. It’s also where the most exciting ideas tend to show up.

Not every week is like this. But when it is, I’m always reminded how much I enjoy the craft of the work itself.

Solving problems. Building plans. Figuring things out.

That part never gets old.

Jedno The Uplift Collective #ProposalDevelopment #ProgramDevelopment #Concept #Ideation #GrowthMindset

There is a moment in almost every skill where things start to feel easier.

Not because the work became simple.

Because you have done it enough times that your brain recognizes the patterns. 

You see what matters faster. You know where to focus.

That moment happened to me this week.

I was reviewing an application for someone and preparing feedback. As I worked through it, the adjustments that were needed felt obvious. The gaps. 

The places where the story could be clearer. The pieces that needed to connect.

The suggestions just rolled off the tongue.

It reminded me how much practice sits behind moments like that.

Years of reading applications. Writing them. Seeing what works. Seeing what does not.

Practice is what creates that shift.

The more time you spend learning the fundamentals, the more room you have later to experiment, adapt, and think creatively.

It applies to almost everything. Leadership. Strategy. Writing. Problem solving.

The early reps may feel repetitive.

They are also what make the interesting work possible later.

#ProposalWriting #NonProfit #RevenueGrowth #BusinessDevelopment #Learning

A pattern I see in many organizations.

They think the challenge is funding.

But when we dig deeper, the real issue is clarity.

Clarity about what they actually do.
Clarity about outcomes.
Clarity about how their work connects to broader priorities.

Funding usually follows clarity.

Without it, even strong ideas struggle to land.

#Funding #ProposalDevelopment #ConceptDevelopment

Inspired by Jesika Arseneau - I've decided to participate in the Coldest Night of the Year walk and fundraise.  I have 6 days to fundraise so consider helping a girl out! 🙏 

The Coldest Night of the Year is a family-friendly 2 or 5 km fundraising walk in support of local charities serving people experiencing hurt, hunger, and homelessness.

Each year in February, tens of thousands of Canadians step outside the warmth and comfort of home to shine a light of welcome and compassion in their communities. Since 2011, the Coldest Night of the Year has raised over $75,000,000 across Canada in 190 Canadian communities – 100% of net proceeds stay local to support our CNOY charity partners. Learn more about our history.

I didn't realize how big this event was or how many locations there are. I encourage everyone to check it out!!

This is my first year and hoping to make it an annual tradition. I'm fundraising so please consider donating (or looking online to donate to someone walking in your community).

https://lnkd.in/eTrGicCw

#CNOY #CNOY2026 #Stittsville #Canada #Community #Fundraiser

Open article: CNOY 2026 Fundhub Canada by secure.e2rm.com

There’s a lot in the headlines lately about major shifts from changes in procurement policy designed to support key sectors and workforce needs, to teams digging deep in the Winter Olympics. 

And it makes me think about this:

Progress isn’t always linear.

It’s not a straight line from A → B.

Sometimes it’s:
• a policy update that reshapes opportunity
• a team rallying after an early setback
• a training room moment nobody ever sees
• a person trying something hard again and again

Whether it’s athletes chasing Olympic dreams or teams trying to solve big workforce challenges, what unites real progress is this:

effort + consistency + community

A reminder today that what matters most isn’t just where you end up,
it’s how you move toward it together.

#Community #TogetherWeCan #ProgressOverPerfection

I love, love, love this. And just need to share!

This is my reply to every email I've missed since Jan 1st.

It's not you, it's me.

And also it's not me, it's *gestures broadly* all of this. 

It's that I learned about the most horrific thing done to children by the men who run *all of this*, before I even left my bed this morning. 

It's the constant deluge of messages on every platform, and the expectation that we are all always available, everywhere, and if we're not, then we're failing. 

It's that we can work this hard and do this much, and they still laugh at us when they think we're not listening. 

It's all of it. 

It's untenable to live in this reality right now as a woman and a mom, and I'm going to do more about it. But in the meantime,  I do apologize for missing your email. 

But I want you to know, it is absolutely not you. 

I love you. 

*boops your nose*.

Alignment is the hidden reason most leaders fail. I help them fix it for good.

Most leaders I meet are insecure overachievers. They carry expectations that are heavier than they look.

When alignment breaks, even the most capable teams lose momentum.

I help product and engineering leaders fix what is really breaking their teams. Misalignment. Together we restore clarity, alignment and momentum so their teams perform at their best without burning out.

What I know about you:
→ You are a senior product or engineering leader with commercial responsibility
→ You are solving harder problems with more eyes on you than ever
→ You are juggling strategy, speed and stakeholder alignment
→ You want to lead with clarity and confidence while staying grounded

How I help tech leaders and their teams:
→ Build high performing, product led organisations
→ Develop leadership skills that grow their team and influence
→ Strengthen trust, alignment and effective ways of working
→ Navigate transitions such as reorgs, promotions or new leadership roles

Whether you are stepping into a new role or levelling up where you are, I help create the clarity and headspace you need to lead with intention.

Clients often say I help them pause and reflect, focus on what matters, and move forward with clarity and purpose.

I bring a mix of product leadership, coaching expertise and experience leading through high stakes transitions. I have helped teams grow through ambiguity, pressure and change.

A bit about my experience:
→ Helped more than 100 tech leaders navigate challenging transitions
→ Ranked #1 for Product Management and #3 for Management & Leadership on LinkedIn in the UK (Favikon)
→ Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), trained Positive Intelligence Coach, ICF Member
→ Ex Pivotal Labs leader who guided teams through an IPO and two major acquisitions, first into VMware and later into Broadcom
→ International speaker and facilitator across Australia, the UK, Europe and the USA

Curious if I am the right fit for you or your team? Send me a message.

Liam Darmody

Someone called Steve Jobs an idiot.

On stage. With cameras rolling.

WWDC 1997.

An audience member tells Jobs he has no idea what he's talking about.

Questions his technical decisions.
Questions what he's been doing for seven years.

In front of hundreds of people.

Here's what Jobs does.

He nods through the insult.
He sits back down.
He takes a drink of water.

Then he says nothing.

For 11 seconds.

When he speaks, he opens with this:

"People like this gentleman are right. In some areas."

He concedes where the critic has a point.
He admits his own limitations.

Then he stands back up and reframes the entire conversation.

"You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology."

Nod. Sit. Pause. Concede. Reframe.

That sequence is conviction with restraint.

It's why he still had the room when he finished speaking.

I see this in the leaders I coach.

The ones who hold their ground know exactly why they made the call.

That clarity is what gives them the pause.

Also, got to love those black patch jeans. Peak '97.

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In 1997, Apple was 90 days from bankruptcy.

Steve Jobs came back and said four words.

"Marketing is about values."

Not features. Not specs.

Values.

He stood in front of his own employees.
And told them to stop talking about the product.

This was a company haemorrhaging money.
Products were behind.
The instinct would be to catch up.
Talk about what's new.
Prove you're competitive.

Jobs did the opposite.

He pointed to Nike.
Nike sells shoes.
They never talk about the shoe.
They never talk about air soles.
Or why they're better than Reebok.

They honour great athletes.
That's who they are.
That's what they stand for.

He pointed to "Got Milk?"
Twenty years telling people milk was good for them.
It didn't work.
Then they made you feel what it's like not to have it.
Sales went up.

Jobs looked at his team and said:

People with passion can change the world.
That's what Apple believes.
That's the whole message.

What people miss is that this wasn't a marketing decision.
It was a leadership one.

I see this with the leaders I work with.

The ones who talk about what their team does
get polite nods.

The ones who talk about what their team believes
get people leaning in.

One attracts transactions.
The other attracts believers.

I experienced this at Pivotal Labs.

We built software.
But that's not what people rallied around.

They rallied around the values.
How we worked. How we collaborated.

When we partnered with clients, it went deeper than software.
It was organisational change.
And that always starts with values too.

Jobs wasn't just launching an ad campaign.
He was doing something else at the same time.
He was giving 8,000+ people a reason to stay.

Most leaders default to talking about what their team does.
Features. Deliverables. Metrics.

The ones people follow talk about what they believe.

What's the belief your team would follow you for?

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Those who keep learning will keep rising in life.

It sounds obvious.
It isn't.

Munger constantly saw people rise who were far from the smartest in the room. Hard work alone didn't explain it either.

They were learning machines.

They went to bed every night a little wiser than when they woke up.

He would know. He read for hours every day, across every discipline he could find.

Most people read to collect. Munger read to think differently.

The leaders I work with who keep getting better have stopped chasing longer hours or the next certification.

They are paying attention. Reading widely. Asking better questions. Connecting ideas across disciplines.

I can always tell when someone has stopped. The language narrows. The references dry up. They start recycling the same three frameworks for every problem.

This is how compounding works outside of finance.
A little wiser today than yesterday.
Repeated for years.

It looks invisible on any given day.
But over a decade, the gap becomes enormous.

Munger was a 99-year-old man who stayed curious his entire life.

He made better decisions at 90 than most people make at 40.

Beyond talent. Beyond effort.

The discipline of staying curious when everyone around you has stopped.

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"Those who keep learning will keep rising in life." (Charlie Munger)

A study compared the top 25 tennis players.

5 of them outlast the rest.

Simon Sinek asked what separated them.

Diet. Coaching. Work ethic.
All equal across the top 25.

The gap came down to one thing.

How they talked to themselves between points.

When the top 5 scored, they said "I love this game."
When they missed, they said "Wait till you see what I do next."

Those words changed what happened in their body.

Their heart rate dropped.
They preserved energy.
They stayed relaxed.

Point by point, it meant nothing.

But by the final set, they had compounded a physical edge built entirely from how they responded to each moment.

I've watched the same pattern in leadership.

Two leaders face the same setback.
Same missed target. Same difficult quarter.

One spirals. Replays the failure. Tightens up.
The other resets. Focuses on the next decision.

Over a week, the difference is invisible.

Over a year, one is burnt out and the other is still calm under pressure.

The gap between good and great is rarely about ability.

It is about what happens in the moments nobody sees.

Simon Sinek explains it better than I can.

What's the habit that compounds most in your role?

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The most limiting belief is:

"I already know."

Every time I've stretched myself into a new role and surrounded myself with people smarter than me, the same instinct kicks in.

Prove you belong.
Have the answer.
Be the one who knows.

Early in your career, that instinct might work.

It builds credibility. It earns trust. So it gets reinforced.

But at some point, it stops being useful and starts running on autopilot.

I've been that person in the room.

The one who stops asking questions because asking feels like admitting weakness.

There's a voice behind it. It sounds like high standards.

"You should already know this."
"Asking makes you look junior."
"You've earned your seat. Act like it."

It sounds like confidence. It's actually a saboteur.

I see it in the leaders I work with all the time.

Someone who built their reputation on expertise starts protecting it instead of expanding it.

The room gets quieter. Ideas dry up.

People stop saying "what if" because the response is already decided.

What looks like alignment is often resignation.

The hardest part is that this pattern disguises itself as strength. It feels earned. It feels deserved.

The first move is catching it.

Noticing the moment you stop being curious and start performing certainty.

Once you can see it, the rest follows:

→ Ask the question anyway, even when you think you know the answer.
→ Invite someone to challenge your thinking on a decision you've already made.
→ Name one assumption you're holding that might be outdated.

The leaders who keep growing treat experience as context, not conclusion.

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Real growth is: “I know everything.” vs “What else can I learn?”

I asked a team to name their top 3 priorities.

I got 11 different answers.

12 people.
11 different interpretations of what mattered most.

They weren't bad at their jobs.
They were good. Motivated. Busy.

But busy doing what?
That's the question nobody was asking.

They knew what to do today.
They could tell you their commitments, deadlines, and tasks. 

Ask them why those tasks mattered and you'd get a pause.

Ask them what the company's top priority was.
Every person in the room had a different answer.

This is the pattern.
Fortune 500s, scaleups, public sector.
The size changes. The gap doesn't.

The strategy exists. The alignment doesn't.
People know what they're doing. They can't tell you why.

Not because they don't care.
Because nobody connected the dots for them.

Wendy McGuinness called it the Strategy Pyramid.
9 layers from purpose to action:

🧭 Purpose: why do we exist?
1. Vision: What future are we building?
2. Mission: Why does this organisation exist?
3. Values: What do we stand for?

📑 Strategy: where are we going?
4. Priorities: What matters most right now?
5. Goals: What will we achieve?
6. Initiatives: What programs will drive progress?

⚙️ Execution: how do we get there?
7. Strategies: What approach will we take?
8. Tactics: What specific actions will we run?
9. Action Plan: Who does what, by when?

Most teams live at the bottom of this pyramid.

The work at the bottom and the purpose at the top look like two different conversations.

And the middle gets lost somewhere between the offsite and Monday morning.

Setting the strategy is the easy part.
Making it visible in the work. That's the job.

What would your team say if you asked them to name the top 3 priorities today?

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An infographic by Liam Darmody on The Strategy Pyramid: 9 Pillars From Purpose To Action For High Performing Organisations

Control feels like competence.

Until your team stops telling the truth.

Having every answer.
Filling every silence.
Running every decision through yourself.

It looks like high standards.
But it has a cost.

When a leader optimises for control, people learn what to hide.

They bring polished conclusions.
The rough thinking stays buried.
Ideas get challenged in corridors.
The meeting room stays polite.

They wait for permission before raising problems.

The leader ends up making decisions with half the information.

The team is strong enough.
They're just afraid of being the one who's wrong.

There's a difference between transparency and vulnerability.

Transparency is sharing information.
Vulnerability is admitting uncertainty.

One is a communication strategy.
The other is a leadership act.

I've watched this cost leaders their best people.

So what does vulnerability look like in a meeting?

It could look like this:

1. Saying "I don't know" in front of the team
2. Asking for help publicly, where the team can see
3. Changing your mind when new information arrives, and saying so

Brene Brown called it what it is:

"Vulnerability is not winning or losing. It's having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome."

That's the part most leaders skip.

The showing up before the outcome is clear.

Which of those three feels hardest for you?

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A portrait of Brené Brown with the following quote: "Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it's having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.”

Nobody told them to work harder.

That's the problem.

UC Berkeley spent eight months studying what happens when a team fully embraces AI.

By month six, they were burning out.

Because nobody set a limit.

To-do lists expanded to fill every hour AI freed up. And then kept going.

People expanded their scope. Covered more ground. Put in more hours.

Without anyone asking them to.

My neighbour is a software engineer. He hasn't written a line of code since December. Never been more productive.

Also never been more exhausted.

He has so many open loops running at once that by the end of every day, he's spent. Not from the work. From the decisions.

A friend building his own AI project described it as an addiction. Constant dopamine hits. He can't stop.

The pattern is always the same.

The tool removes a constraint. Output goes up.

And the absence of someone saying "that's enough" turns a gain into an endurance test.

Speed limits exist for a reason.

Not to slow people down. To protect them.

When AI removed the speed limit on knowledge work, most leaders treated it like an opportunity.

Few treated it as a decision.

The decision being: what pace is sustainable for this team?

That's not a technology question.

That's a leadership question.

And the leader who never asked it didn't fail at AI adoption.

They failed at the oldest job in leadership.

Setting the pace.

What's the unspoken speed limit on your team right now?

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A simple editorial image with the following quote: Your team adopted AI and output tripled. So did the burnout.

19% slower.
They thought they were 20% faster.
246 tasks. 16 developers.

METR ran a randomised controlled trial.

Experienced developers on real codebases.
Bug fixes, features, refactors.

AI tools made them slower.

But when asked, they believed AI had sped them up by 20%.

69% kept using AI after the study ended.
Even knowing the results.

When the tool feels good, you stop questioning whether it works.

This isn't just an AI story.

It's a dopamine story.

Cheap dopamine is everywhere now.
Social media. AI tools. Every new shortcut.

They feel productive.
They feel like progress.
They feel like learning.

When we feel we are learning, we may in fact be procrastinating.

Consuming feels like work.
But creating is where the value lives.

Time disappears in the gap between the two.

This is where it becomes a leadership question.

The gap between feeling productive and being productive is invisible from the inside.

It applies at every level.

A person scrolling instead of shipping.
A team adopting tools without measuring outcomes.
An organisation chasing trends instead of advancing goals.

The leader's job is to notice when things are busy but not moving.

That's intentionality.

Choosing creating over consuming.
Choosing meaningful over busy.

Making it a daily practice.

What's your version of this trap?

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A comparative illustration of feeling productive vs being being productive

Your dashboards got smarter.

Your decisions didn't.

I keep seeing this pattern.

The data may be clean, real-time, well-structured.
And yet, the leadership team still can't agree on what to do next.

There's a hierarchy to this.

It's called the DIKW pyramid.
Data. Information. Knowledge. Wisdom.

Most teams are stuck near the bottom.

AI made the lower layers almost free.
Collection. Processing. Pattern recognition.
All faster than ever.

But wisdom hasn't got any cheaper.

Knowing what to do with everything you know. That still takes experience. And time.

Here's what makes it worse.

The pyramid looks like it flows upward.
Data becomes information becomes knowledge becomes wisdom.

But as Weinberger argued, you need judgement to know which data matters in the first place.

It doesn't just flow upward.
Judgement shapes what you collect.

Leaders without wisdom don't just make bad decisions.
They collect the wrong data.

T.S. Eliot wrote this in 1934:

"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

That was almost a century before AI made the problem faster.

This is where leadership value sits.

Not in having the most information.
In knowing what matters.

The pyramid has four layers.

Only one is oriented toward the future.

And it's the one AI can't do for you.

Where does your team spend most of its time on this pyramid?

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An infographic of the DIKW Pyramid, created by Liam Darmody. DIKW: Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom.

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Stephanie Wilson's LinkedIn Performance

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