Over more than a decade Artful Thinking has been our North Star. 

Through numerous career pursuits, side hustles, on-a-whim ideas ChristinaMarie has been by my side, guiding, challenging and supporting. It is not just the focus on career outcomes that has been valuable, it's ChristinaMarie's ability to assist in establishing holistic life objectives that provide outcomes far more valuable than the sum of their parts, delivering a balanced approach to work, family and lifestyle. 

-Dan

Sales

I’ve worked with ChristinaMarie for six years, and one of the things I value most about her is her ability to meet me exactly where I am. No matter what challenge I’ve brought to her, she somehow has a way of opening it up, helping me see possibilities, opportunities, and ways forward that I wouldn’t have found on my own.

Her concepts have helped me not only build a better, more successful business, but also become significantly happier and more fulfilled in my work. Ideas like time design, and her broader approach of treating challenges as design problems rather than fixed constraints, have fundamentally changed the way I think. ChristinaMarie is expansive in her thinking, and working with her has taught me to be more expansive in mine. Those tools have become so ingrained that I use them well beyond my business.

-Anna

Communications Consultant

ChristinaMarie is not just a business coach, she has helped me in all aspects of my life, relationships, finance, bigger picture thinking, health. I travel a lot and it has been wonderful to keep a weekly consistent meeting and have a sense of routine. ChristinaMarie is always accommodating with time zone changes and our meetings have been a fun part of my travels and something I look forward to.

ChristinaMarie is smart and kind and brings a wonderful energy into the room (zoom meeting) I always feel inspired after our meetings and without her, I wouldn't be able to stay on track the way I have.

-Matt

Web Developer, Designer, Programmer

ChristinaMarie has been an invaluable resource, guide, and mentor—not just in my journey as an entrepreneur and business owner, but also as a mom, a woman, and a human being.

One of my favorite things about ChristinaMarie is her ability to balance thoughtful, unbiased listening with genuinely insightful advice. I always leave our conversations feeling enriched by her wisdom, but also with a clearer sense of my own thoughts, ideas, and direction. She has a way of helping me see things differently without ever losing sight of what feels true to me.

The world would be a calmer, wiser, and more thoughtful place if we all had a ChristinaMarie in our corner!

-Baylie,

Designer, OTD student

I have known ChristinaMarie for nearly 11 years.  When we first met, I was in an unhappy professional situation, on the back end of a divorce.   I was and trying to find a path to a job that would satisfy me professionally and personally, and that wasn’t going to simply be trading the devil I knew for the devil I didn’t.  

I was introduced to ChristinaMarie through a mutual connection in January 2016, and I was very skeptical. Wasn’t this just therapy dressed up as “coaching?”  How is this person, who knows nothing about my profession, going to help me navigate the politics, economics, and internal barriers that I was dealing with?  Was this going to be a good use of money? And so on…..

Our first few sessions were just conversations, getting to know one another and developing a rhythm for our sessions.  ChristinaMarie asked a lot of questions, we made a lot of charts together and gradually developed a rapport.  Then she hit me with the simplest, and hardest, question I’ve ever been asked:  “What do you want?”  And I found that I could not answer the question.  I wrestled with it for months.  It should have been so simple, but in reality drilling to the core of my needs and wants required an honesty with myself that I’d never been able to unlock before. 

Then, about a year after we started working together, I figured out that what I really wanted and needed was to have ownership.  Of myself, my schedule, my clients, my marketing, and my outcomes.  In other words, I needed to make the jump from working for other people and start my own business, where I could have the freedom, flexibility, risk and rewards that were lacking in my job.  So in April 2017 I left my job, hung my shingle, and have been happily running my own business ever since – all with ChristinaMarie by my side.

The nature and frequency of our sessions have changed in that time, because my needs have changed.  But I can’t imagine running my business without having ChristinaMarie as a resource.  When I have an idea, I bounce it off her and get real feedback – always positive, sometimes in a “yes, and” way that let’s me know that maybe I should rethink this one.  And she continues to push me to think about ways to be more efficient, develop more flexibility in terms of time that I could be using for things that are not work related, and to find my highest and best use. 

In short, ChristinaMarie’s wise counsel over the years has been invaluable to me, and I’m sure it will be for many years to come.

-Jeremy

Mediator / Arbitrator

ChristinaMarie has been an invaluable partner to us for nearly a decade, helping us grow Paxson Fay and become more confident, thoughtful leaders. She has guided us through challenging client situations, helped us refine our pricing and recognize the value and impact of our work, and supported us in knowing when to expand our team and how to find the right people.

Early on, ChristinaMarie encouraged us to start tracking our time. It seems obvious now, but that simple shift fundamentally changed how we understood and ran our business. That’s one of her strengths: identifying practical changes that make a lasting difference.

Her guidance has also helped us build effective workflows and protect time for our families and ourselves, so we can sustain the business we’ve worked so hard to build.

ChristinaMarie brings a wealth of knowledge, perspective, and care to every conversation. She has played an important role in helping our business thrive, and we’re deeply grateful for her partnership.

-Amy & Tessa

Public Relations Firm