The REAL about Steph

Steph Yost, PCC, CPCC has been a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach for individual professional and personal leaders navigating transformative change in their lives and careers SINCE 2004

(a time when virtually no one seemed to know what a professional Coach was outside of sports)!

Prior to becoming a certified coach, I held an executive position in Human Resources.

My career path took a hard right turn after I became a mother and chose to birth my daughter at home. My choice to split off from the traditional medical model so widely practiced in the US, led me to become a Certified Childbirth Doula and HypnoBirthing Instructor. I became soul-inspired to support any woman who desired more sovereignty in their pregnancy and birth process, with REAL options.

After 3.5 years of serving in this way, I knew I needed and wanted MORE for the families I was supporting to integrate the changes they were experiencing individually and as a family system.

In the midst of a huge life upheaval of my own, I went on a modern day vision quest and discovered my first coach, one of our two vision quest guides, who introduced me to the profession of personal coaching.

I KNEW in the very first ‘sample’ class that this was the profession I had been looking for. It encompassed all of who I had been, who I was at the time, and gave me confidence that it would grow with me into who I was transitioning into becoming as a professional.

After attending coaching school and certification with The Co-active Training Institute, my early years as a coach naturally focused on coaching moms who felt burdened by societal’s definition of what they believed they needed to be as a mom.

I found natural alignment and purpose to support those women as they redefined the role of mother for themselves, celebrating their inevitable transformations as they integrated more of their REAL essence and feminine wildness into their new realities as a mom and community member.

I coached moms individually and in groups for many years, as well as led several community-based initiatives to give back to moms to help them thrive - including the Mother’s Day Rejuice Festival.

My work with moms naturally morphed into coaching female entrepreneurs who wanted to change their communities with their heart-based product or service, while learning how to live out their own feminine leadership and purpose through their work lives.

These clients, and my own entrepreneurial journey, prompted me in 2003 to c0-found the 501(c)(3) non-profit community group, WiNGs, the Women’s Network Group , a community resource that still thrives in Centre County, PA. It was my way to support those starved-for-connection women in my community to find resource and REAL support in one another as they courageously took up more space and purpose in their lives and businesses.

At the same time, my work branched out internationally as an Associate for the London-based Consulting team at White & Lime Coaching (formerly, Oaktree), consulting with emerging executive leaders in such corporations as Deloitte, Disney, Habitat for Humanity, The Guardian, Comic Relief, and the 2012 London Olympics.

Locally, I consulted with private companies, organizations, and their leaders, to create more efficient and enjoyable inter-personal relationships, teams, and work environments that brought even higher alignment to their overall mission.

Since 2017, I have served several rounds as a Mentor Coach for CEO Founders of the startups in the Techstars Accelerator Programs for both Boulder and Denver, CO. Also since then, I regularly facilitate cohorts of hand-picked leaders for leadership development at Hewlett-Packard Inc for Emerging Women, Inc.

My last in-house corporate gig (and fodder for a really great book on Systems Theory) was as the sole Leadership Coach at Gaia, Inc. (think the character,Wendy Rhodes, from the Showtime Series, Billions) where I really got to test out my theory of “shift one person, and the whole system shifts”.

It was fascinating to be able to have a powerful conversation with one person in the morning, watch them commit to change something in how they showed up at work, and then, often, see the ripples of their courageous decision reach another part of the company by the afternoon!

No matter what group work has called me, my 1:1 private practice has always been the core of my work. Championing heart-centered leaders, entrepreneurial CEO’s, moms and coaches has been a constant source of passion throughout all the iterations of my coaching career.

In 2020, I was honored to be invited by Victor McGuire, PhD to become a founding member of Coaching for Everyone, a professional 501(c)(3) organization centered around creating opportunity for BIPOC community of new coaches and community. I was thrilled to be on the ground level of a movement committed to serve traditionally under-resourced communities gain access to the coaching profession- if they wanted it.

As of 2025, I lead personal mentorships utilizing clients’ Human Design and Gene Keys charts, and offer seasonal (optional year-long) change incubators (The REALvolution), in support of rewiring women for claiming their one, big, juicy life, and to have more outlets to get more REAL in what matters most to them.

In response to my clients, and potential clients, input, I am constantly developing the next iteration of women leaders group experiences online and in-person, aligned with this REALvolution programming, along with hosting bespoke Couples and Feminine Reclamation Retreats on Maui.

Got something you’d like us do together? Reach out to me here if so!

I am fascinated by what motivates and inspires humans in both the professional and personal realms. I reconnect women leaders with their oft-forgotten or misplaced power and passion; and delight in witnessing their joy when they rediscover it for themselves. Most of my clients value freedom above all else and discover that fun and play is not just for children.

Nothing of your inner world that seeks expression is off-limits in our coaching. Often, the most intimate aspects of our human lives - work, money, sexuality, forbidden emotions, rest, and relationships, are some of the most common topics that come up and produce the most noticeable transformation.

I LOVE working with those ready to create a revolution, both within themselves and in their communities.

Iʻm confident we were born with it ALL inside us, we only improve with age, and that radical permission to enjoy this life is the secret to the universe.

I live on the island of Maui, with my perfect-for-me husband (also a coach and trauma therapist), and our 115 lb house horse (dog). Perhaps one day I will get to update this to include my adult daughter in the menagerie, but for now, I get to taunt her with beach pics and the fruit that grows year round in our back yard.

That’s my REAL. What’s yours?

To support yours or your organization’s own evolution, drop me a line.