Dr. Steph Nash and I met on a relatively sunny Monday. We both remark on the brilliance of the sky and how time seems to be flowing, not flying, by. She has a vibe that some will say is whoo-whoo: Present, pleasant and calm. Momentarily, I will (inadvertently) pose the most challenging prompt of our conversation: “Tell me a little bit about yourself and what you’re building.”
Stephanie, the founder of Paradigm Expansions, introduces herself to me as a “spiritual entrepreneur.” She acknowledges the abstract nature of her personality, disposition and business when reflecting on her experience during our 2026 Spring Bootcamp, “It was really helpful. Being able to communicate ‘this is what I offer people’ has always been a challenge for me. [It all] tends to be in this abstract space.”
Learning more about Dr. Nash’s background, it becomes easier to understand why the inquiry is a challenge and how she’s arrived at this rather esoteric career path. She holds a PhD in rehabilitation sciences, a master’s in occupational therapy, and a bachelor’s in special education; all in tandem with being a registered yoga teacher and certified intuition practitioner. This September she added “author” to her multi-hypen career path with the release of her book, The D Word.
We shared our time together discussing how attending Ascender’s Office Hours helped her with strategizing a plan to connect her new audience of readers to her coaching practice. Below are a few of Steph’s lessons learned.
Lesson 1:
Schedule, Attend & Repeat
As a big picture thinker, she says it can sometimes be difficult to think about the next step vs. the next leap. Over the course of months, Office Hours sessions with John Rodella, Leanna McGrath and Ellen McDevitt have helped Steph clarify initial steps in her sales process; understand what language to use with her native audience vs. target audience and how to choose what to target right now. Each expert suggested she return, and she committed to following through.
Lesson 2:
Identify the customer and the language to reach them
“Women-empaths in executive coaching” isn’t the most universal of terminologies. While understood amongst Steph’s then core clientele, it might be alienating to potential customers. Leadership & Customer Success coach Leanna McGrath and Programs Director Ellen McDevitt both offered support in helping Dr. Nash “niche down” her audience. She can now say, “I want to work with women who are 1-year+ post-divorce and have already begun to receive therapy. They’re working on rebuilding their identities and self-worth.”
Lesson 3:
Entice & Interact
“How can we get people to have FOMO about what you offer?” is how John Rodella got Dr. Nash to pull her plan in from a far off future, and push beyond the singularity of individual products to the full (customer) experience. “He was thinking of a way to make it enticing to people.” Together they constructed a quiz that Steph credits as a “really nice lead magnet” prior to the book’s release. In six questions she’s able to gather extremely valuable information on her prospects, while communicating to her audience that she gets where they are in their journey.
Lesson 4:
The Solution You Seek, Might Not Be the Answer You Get
“I went into my first meeting with John Rodella with a product strategy question ready, ‘I have all of these products. What should I lead with?’” Although this is John’s area of expertise, his answer was an invitation to take a step back and narrow Paradigm Expressions’ offerings down. Then focus on making that one thing exciting, and easy to comprehend.
“It’s so awesome to have someone looking at my stuff one on one. You can accomplish so much in 30 minutes because the experts are so on top of it.”
Ascender’s Expert Office Hours program gives members the opportunity to book unlimited sessions with industry leaders in Product Strategy, Marketing, Tech & Law, Executive Coaching and more. Non-Ascender members may access the program up to three sessions for free.
Dr. Stephanie Nash’s book The D Word is out now.
Story & editing by atiya jones.