What does a sustainable performance coach do?

A sustainable performance coach helps high-achieving founders and students build systems and strategies for long-term performance without burnout. Ellyn Schinke diagnoses what's actually blocking performance before building anything — because motivation isn't the problem, design is.

What is the Heroics Economy?

The Heroics Economy is when a business only moves when the founder is in crisis mode — running on adrenaline instead of systems. It's a design problem, not a discipline problem. When heroics become the operating strategy, burnout is inevitable.

What is dependence by design in coaching?

Dependence by design is a coaching model built to keep clients paying rather than make them capable. Most coaching containers produce attachment instead of autonomy — the client feels supported inside the container but falls apart the moment they're on their own. Real coaching should make itself less necessary over time, not more.

What is the diagnostic-first methodology?

The diagnostic-first methodology means identifying what's actually blocking performance before building any solution. Most coaches sell generic frameworks to clients they've never assessed. Ellyn Schinke diagnoses the specific constraint first — whether that's a founder's business systems or a student's executive function — and builds the playbook around that.

What is Notion and why does it matter for founders?

Notion is an all-in-one productivity and automation app that can replace multiple disconnected tools in a founder's business. As a Notion Ambassador, Ellyn Schinke builds custom Notion systems for founders who need to get everything out of their head and into a structure that runs without them.

Does Coach Ellyn work with students as well as founders?

Yes. Ellyn Schinke works with both high-achieving founders and high-achieving students. The methodology is the same: diagnose what's blocking performance, build systems that fit how the person actually works, and create a sustainable path to long-term results. For students, this means academic tutoring, SAT and ACT prep, and executive function support.

What is work-life balance and why doesn't it work?

Work-life balance is a cultural frame that treats a structural load problem as a personal character flaw. It fails because it's vague by design — a standard you can never hit. The real model is load vs. resources: when your load exceeds your resources, the answer isn't better habits. It's reduce the load, increase the support, or redesign the system.

PRIVACY POLICY

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. It explains what personal data we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.

1. OVERVIEW

Coach Ellyn LLC ("Company") is committed to protecting your privacy online. This Privacy Policy describes the personal data we collect through coachellyn.com, its subdomains (including members.coachellyn.com and notion.coachellyn.com, etc.), and any page, app, form or email that links to this policy (together, the "Site"), and what we do with it.

Visitors and any users of the Site are referred to as "user," "you" and "your," and the Company is referred to as "we," "us," and "our." The Company processes personal data as a Controller as defined by the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This Privacy Policy applies to all Site visitors, customers, clients and all other users of the Site and our Services. Where the law requires your consent, such as for marketing emails, non-essential cookies or health information, we ask for it separately.

Health-related information is also covered by our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy. Where the two differ, that policy controls for health information.

2. DATA WE COLLECT AND HOW WE USE IT

We collect the personal information you voluntarily provide to us, which includes your name and email address, in order to subscribe to our newsletter, receive our content, take a quiz or use a tool, comment on our blog, and/or purchase services or online products. There is also other personal data we may collect, detailed herein.

We collect data from you directly when you fill out a form, take a quiz, purchase a product, book a call, or communicate with us via email or social media. We also collect data from you when you use our Website. We may collect personal data from third parties such as our payment processors, advertising networks, and/or analytics providers. Your data is stored in secure platforms. We use your personal data for processing as outlined below or a reasonably compatible purpose.

Usage Data. We may process data about your use of our Website and services. This may include your IP address, browser type, operating system, geographical location, page views, website navigation paths, and frequency and/or pattern of your use of our Website. This data is collected through our analytics tracking systems, including Google Analytics and Squarespace Analytics. This data is used to analyze the use of our Website, to deliver relevant content and advertising, and to understand our users. The legal basis for processing is our legitimate interest, namely monitoring and improving our website, marketing, and services.
Customer Data. We may process user data, such as name, email address, address, telephone and other relevant data as related to purchases of our products and/or services. Credit card numbers are collected and processed by our payment processors (Stripe, PayPal and Squarespace Payments); we do not see or store them. We process this data to supply products and/or services to you, as well as to market other relevant goods and services to you. The legal basis for processing is consent and your affirmative action to enter into a contract with us and/or the purchase and delivery of the contract between you and us.
User Data. We may process personal information you provide us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications, free content, and/or newsletters, as well as communication data that you send to us either through email, social media, or other posting and/or communication methods. We process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, delivering relevant website content, and sending you marketing, content and/or emails. The legal basis for this processing is consent or our legitimate interests, which are to grow our business and keep records which may be needed to pursue or defend a legal action.
Quiz and Tool Data. We may process your answers to our quizzes and tools, such as the burnout type quiz (collected through Tally) and the Notion template finder (notion.coachellyn.com). These answers are stored separately from your name and email and are not linked to your identity. We use them to show you your result and to improve our tools. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in providing and improving these tools.
Client and Student Data. If you work with us, we may process information you share during coaching, consulting or tutoring, such as business details, goals, session notes, AI-generated meeting notes and, for students, school, test and coursework information shared by a parent or guardian. We process this data to deliver our services. The legal basis for this processing is the performance of our contract with you.

3. MARKETING AND ADVERTISING

The above Data may be used to send you marketing communications about our business or products. The legal basis for this type of processing is either consent or our legitimate interests in growing our business. We send such communications only if you requested them and/or agreed to receive them. You may opt out of such communications at any time through the "unsubscribe" link in each email or by contacting us at support@coachellyn.com.

Usage Data may be used to deliver advertisements to you, including on Facebook and Instagram through the Meta (Facebook) Pixel, and to understand the effectiveness of our advertising. The legal basis for this type of processing is our legitimate interest in growing our business through marketing and advertising, or your consent where required. We never use quiz answers, client data or health information for advertising.

4. SHARING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We share your information with trusted third parties who provide support in running this Website, including any blog or newsletter, as well as those parties and services that help administer our business. Your data will never be shared with unrelated third parties, and we do not sell your personal data. We may disclose your information to payment service providers, administrative and marketing providers, business advisors, or third parties if we sell or transfer parts of our Company. Third parties we share your data with will keep it secure and respect your privacy under the law, and we take steps to ensure the companies we work with also comply with the GDPR.

The service providers we currently use include:

Purpose
Provider
Website, store, forms, email campaigns, analytics
Squarespace
Member accounts and login
MemberSpace (moving to Base44 at members.coachellyn.com)
Web apps and their built-in AI (template finder, member tools)
Base44
Quizzes
Tally
Payments
Stripe, PayPal, Squarespace Payments
Scheduling, email, video calls, analytics, spam protection
Google (Calendar, Gmail, Meet, Analytics, reCAPTCHA)
Client workspaces, records and AI meeting notes
Notion (including Notion AI)
AI drafting and analysis
Anthropic (Claude)
Podcast and video hosting
YouTube, Spotify
Advertising measurement
Meta

This list may change as our tools change. We will update it when we add a provider that receives your personal data.

5. ANTI-SPAM POLICY

We comply with anti-spam laws. If you opt in to receive our newsletter, marketing, or other communications, the option to unsubscribe will be included in every email. If we sell or transfer any of our business or assets, certain information about our clients may be part of that sale or transfer. In the event such sale or transfer results in a material change to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you.

6. COOKIES

We may send cookies, the Meta (Facebook) Pixel, and/or other tracking signals to your computer in order to uniquely identify your browser and improve the quality of our service and/or advertising. We use cookies to identify when you visit our Website, to store information about your preferences, to personalize the Website and/or advertisements you may see, and to analyze the use and performance of our Website.

The term "cookies" refers to small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer's hard drive while you are viewing the Site. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them). You can accept or decline non-essential cookies through our cookie banner and manage cookies and tracking signals in your web browser settings. If you choose to disable cookies, some areas of the Website may not work properly or at all. Our Site does not currently respond to Do Not Track signals sent by your browser.

7. THIRD PARTY LINKS

This Site may contain links to third-party websites. Unless otherwise stated, this Privacy Policy only covers information that we collect from you on this Site. Any other link will be covered by the privacy policy of that specific site. You acknowledge and accept that we are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third parties.

8. AI TOOLS

We use AI tools to help draft content, take and summarize meeting notes, and build client documentation:

Notion AI, including its meeting notetaker, transcribes and summarizes calls when everyone on the call agrees. Notion does not use this data to train AI models.
Claude (Anthropic) helps with drafting and analysis. Model training is turned off.
Base44's built-in AI matches your template finder answers to templates. No other outside AI provider receives those answers.

We do not use AI to make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

9. DATA SECURITY AND BREACH RESPONSE

We do our best to protect your information from unauthorized access, misuse, or disclosure. We may allow access to your personal data to our employees, contractors, and service providers who need to know such data to perform necessary business services. Personal data will be kept confidential, and employees and/or contractors will only have access to it when necessary. Secure password managers, platforms and two-factor authentication are used to manage data access whenever possible.

Should there be a potential breach of personal data, we have procedures in place to respond. The breach will be identified, the scope will be determined, and we will make reports and/or notifications as required by law.

You acknowledge that the personal information you voluntarily share could be accessed or tampered with by a third party. You agree that we are not responsible for any intercepted information shared through our Site without our knowledge or permission. Additionally, you release us from any and all claims arising out of or related to the use of such intercepted information in any unauthorized manner. You agree to notify us of any breach of security or unauthorized use of your information.

10. DATA RETENTION AND DESTRUCTION

Personal data that we process for any purpose shall not be kept for longer than is necessary to fulfill its collection purpose or to satisfy a legal or accounting purpose. Email subscribers remain on our list until they unsubscribe. Client and student records are kept for three (3) years after our work together ends. In some cases, your data may be anonymized for research purposes and used indefinitely. If your data no longer meets any of the above criteria, it will be deleted or otherwise disposed of in a safe and secure manner.

11. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

We are based in the United States, and our service providers primarily store data in the United States. If you use the Website from outside the United States, your data will be transferred to and processed in the United States. If you are located in the European Union or United Kingdom, we may store and share your personal data with companies located outside the European Economic Area. We will always do our best to ensure the security of your data and to use providers that maintain appropriate safeguards for international transfers. You may always request information on how and where your data is processed and stored.

12. CHILDREN'S ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT COMPLIANCE

We do not knowingly collect or solicit data online from, or market online to, children under the age of 13, in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Tutoring services are purchased and arranged by a parent or guardian, and information about students under 18 is collected from or with the permission of their parent or guardian. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

13. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We reserve the right to update or change our Privacy Policy at any time. We will post any changes on this page and update the date below. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either through the email address you have provided us or by placing a prominent notice on this Website.

14. YOUR RIGHTS

Your rights under data protection laws include the right to access, erase, correct, restrict, and/or object to our use and processing of your personal data, as well as the right to portability of the data. You have the right to confirmation as to how and where we process your data. To the extent that the legal basis for our processing is consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time. If you consider our processing to infringe data protection laws, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email support@coachellyn.com. We will verify your identity and respond within 45 days. We will not treat you differently for exercising your rights. Washington residents have additional rights over health information, described in our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.

15. OUR INFORMATION

This Website is owned and operated by:

Coach Ellyn LLC
1600-B SW Dash Point Road #1054
Federal Way, WA 98023

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please email support@coachellyn.com.

Updated: October 23, 2026