About Your Head Coach, Ellyn →
Notion Nerd.
Systems Builder.
Capacity Protector.
Professional
Game-Changer!
I'm about to change your life, your business, and your relationship with your to-do list.
I built a life that looked incredible on paper.
Color-coded calendar. Every box checked. Every gold star collected. And? I felt none of it.
Because success without internal alignment is just performance. I know, because I lived it—in a lab coat, doing a job I'd built for everyone else's approval.
But don’t get it twisted—the problem wasn't my ambition. It was the alignment, or lack thereof.
So I stopped performing my potential and started tuning in, listening to myself, and building it.
Now I help other high-achievers close that same gap, between looking successful and actually feeling it, without the overwhelm, burnout, and mental breakdowns.
The Long Version
Reformed Academic. Recovering Overachiever.
I'm Ellyn Schinke: Notion Ambassador, systems architect, burnout coach, and academic mentor. I have 10+ years of experience in academic strategy, performance coaching, and business systems.
Before this, I was a research scientist and a four-year varsity soccer player. I know what it looks like to perform at a high level on the outside while running on empty underneath, because I lived it in more ways than one—in school, on the pitch, and in a Ph.D. program I walked away from with no backup plan. Just a gut-deep sense that life had to feel better than this.
I bring the strategy and structure, the real talk and tough love, and the unshakable belief that your ambitions should support your life, not consume it. I tutor calculus and coach CEOs because to me? They're the same problem: a capable human who needs the playbook for their specific game.
When I'm not building systems or coaching founders, you'll probably find me on a paddleboard, deep in a Notion build that sparks way too much joy, or at karaoke with a story involving Queen (or Eminem—depends on the night) that I can’t stop talking about.
"If you refuse to slow down — but know you can't keep running on burnout — you're in the right place."
featured with…
"On my way to revoke someone's coaching certification for saying 'you just need to delegate.'"
-Ellyn, probably this week
Category of One
This isn't a Philosophy.
It's a PROOF.
Σ(S³) × d/dt(h × a) + E∫(Coaching)dt ⊥ Balance ∴ Sustainable Performance = ∞
Unreplicable. Undeniable.
Built for the humans who were never going to fit anywhere else anyway.
**Don’t worry—this is as nerdy as I get.
(Unless I’m tutoring your kid in calculus or a student asks me about my Giant Microbes—then all bets are off)…😏
This Is What I Believe.
This is how I Build. This is the standard.
We don't do burnout.
Burnout isn't proof we care. It's proof our business wasn't built to hold how much we care. The goal was never to survive. It was always to last.
Organized isn't the same as sustainable.
You can have a beautiful system and still be the bottleneck in your own business. Looking organized and being sustainable are two completely different games.
Freedom is the design.
We measure success by how much life our business gives back, not how much it demands. Freedom isn't the reward at the end of the grind. It's the whole point.
We take big swings.
We built the systems, cleared the space, and sharpened the skills so that when the moment comes, we can go all in. No hesitation. This is the standard.
I believe your business should help you...
Create more freedom, not less
Protect your energy, not drain it
Make more impact without sacrificing yourself
Build something that lasts
Keep playing the long game
And if it’s not…your systems are what need the up-level.
"You don't need to become a different person. You need a business that carries more of the load."
The Promise
For the Love of the Game.
Before the credentials, the certifications, the systems, and the frameworks, there was just a person who genuinely, deeply, unabashedly loved the game: the competition, the process, the moment someone realizes they were capable of more than they were letting themselves reach for.
That love isn't incidental to this work. It's the whole foundation of it. Because of it, you will never be a transaction here.
I care deeply, and I don't take on what's yours to carry. And I don't believe that's in conflict. I believe that's what a good coach does.
If You Stay Ready, You Don't Have to Get Ready 📋
Game On 🏈
Settle the Score 🥇
Leave It All on the Field ⚽
In the Pocket 🏆
For the Love of the Game 🏐
If You Stay Ready, You Don't Have to Get Ready 📋 Game On 🏈 Settle the Score 🥇 Leave It All on the Field ⚽ In the Pocket 🏆 For the Love of the Game 🏐
First Round Picks
Where I actually stand
At a Glance
The Unofficial Scouting Report.
MORNING RITUAL? The Morning walk. Obviously. Probably after a good reading and journaling sesh so that I talk less to AI while I’m decompressing.
ON THE FIELD. Four-year varsity soccer player. Still processing stress through movement, just with fewer cleats.
ASK ME ABOUT.
Why I left a PhD program and never looked back. What your real performance blocker probably is.
PAST LIFE. Former research scientist. Traded the lab coat for a headset. The diagnostic instinct came with me.
OFF THE CLOCK. Rooftop journaling, brewery hopping, a Lord of the Rings marathon on standby, and one unhinged karaoke story involving Queen.
UNPOPULAR OPINION. Balance is BS and we all know it. Motivation is a consumable. Stop spending your budget on it.
Take it from Them…
“Sooo, I am actually a Psychologist (PhD and everything) and I specialize in late ADHD diagnosis in women. This is a BRILLIANT example of working with your brain instead of against it!”
-Elle Windsor, PhD, Psychologist
From the Film Room
Not sick of me yet?
