Get to know Stef.
Stef helps ambitious people nurture their careers, and build delicious lives through her leadership, writing, and investing.
Professionally, Stef helps companies grow revenues by uniting the efforts of marketing, sales, and client retention teams, and by leading members of those high-performing teams to attract and engage ideal prospects, book deals, and retain “raving fan” clients.
As a leader, Stef has built entire GTM functions from the ground up, including leading marketing, sales, business development, and client development teams. Stef manages with goals (both at the individual level and team level), establishing clear expectations and SOPs upfront, and implementing systems of accountability based on the needs of the team. Stef addresses conflict with a curiosity-first approach. And finally, Stef leads with radical candor, leveraging her innate ability to recognize and tap into the unique superpowers in everyone, guiding each person to growth opportunities that suit their interests.
As an individual contributor, Stef has a proven track record of breaking into and closing multi-six-and-seven-figure software deals at the highest levels of F500 companies. She also has first-hand experience building and servicing multi-million dollar books of ARR in the enterprise and mid-market/commercial markets, developing strategic executive relationships, negotiating complex deals (direct, channel, and OEM), and building new revenue channels, from scratch, within aggressive timeframes (<1 year).
As a consultant, Stef guides founders as they go from idea-stage to their first eight figures, providing everything from strategic planning to hands-on marketing, sales, business development, customer success, and GTM operational support. Her ready-made marketing, business development, and sales playbooks deliver instant impact for founders who want to do more, with less.
Outside work, Stef is an author and creator focused on creating content aimed at helping people design and live their own version of a delicious life. She is slowly working on an heirloom cookbook for her girls, writing one recipe and one piece of advice at a time. You can come along for the journey by subscribing to Recipes for Success, her weekly newsletter.
Stef is the author of ManifestHer, a peer-to-peer guide for women navigating the abyss of adulthood, seeking practical advice for getting out of their own way and into action around their biggest dreams, which she published after seeing so many of her peers stop short of their biggest dreams, for fear of failure, lack of know-how or network. Published in 2020, ManifestHer received support from: NYT Best-Selling Author and ex-Google Executive Kim Scott; 2x Olympian and Captain of Team USA Rugby Lauren Doyle; and Best Selling Authors Lori Harder (A Tribe Called Bliss) and Amber Rae (Choose Wonder Over Worry). Since the publishing of her book, Stef has been called upon to speak and facilitate workshops at companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to Startups and Women’s Networks. Stef’s ManifestHer Minis children’s series gives girls the lessons so many women do not discover until much later: self-worth, courage, resilience, compassion, and an unwavering belief in what is possible.
Stef passionately supports and mentors ambitious women in achieving their career dreams, both informally via countless phone calls, voice notes, and text messages, as well as formally, through her work with organizations like GET Cities (Melinda Gates’ Foundation for womxn in STEM) and 1871/ITA (Chicago-based community of founders, leaders, innovators advancing the world forward and shaping a brighter future through technology). From time to time, Stef invests in early-stage businesses (primarily women and/or BIPOC-founders).
Stef previously hosted a weekly podcast featuring conversations with the leaders behind disruptive consumer companies. Previous guests included: Ty Haney (Outdoor Voices), Ariana Ferwerda (Halfdays), Brittany Stewart (Burst Oral Care), Roisin Branch (Blade), Scout Brisson (Katy Perry’s Co-Founder at De Soi), Sarah Jahnke (Courteney Cox’s Co-Founder at Homecourt), Lauren Wang (Flex) and more!
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